6 Best QuickBooks Alternatives for 2025 (Free & Paid)

Zoho Books is my top pick among the best QuickBooks alternatives because it offers a user experience similar to QuickBooks Online but with an even more functional mobile app. You can use it to send invoices, receive payments, track time worked, capture expense receipts, and view reports—all directly from the app.

What sets Zoho Books apart from QuickBooks is its flexible pricing model, which makes it a great choice for businesses that want scalability without unnecessary costs. Unlike QuickBooks Online, you’re not forced to upgrade just to add more users. Instead, you can stick with your current plan and simply pay $3 per additional user monthly, making it an affordable QuickBooks substitute.

Standout Features

• Tracks bills and automates recurring expenses: With the ability to track unpaid bills and set up recurring expenses, Zoho Books takes the hassle out of managing periodic payments. This feature ensures bills are paid on time and reduces manual tracking efforts, streamlining financial workflows.
• Powerful mobile app: The Zoho Books mobile app stands out by allowing users to handle key accounting tasks on the go. From sending professional invoices to accepting payments and viewing detailed financial reports, it ensures you stay connected to your business, no matter where you are.
• Direct phone support for paid plans: Unlike many competitors, Zoho Books offers phone support for all paid plans, providing quick resolutions to user queries. However, free plan users are limited to email support, which might not be ideal for urgent concerns.
• Easy bank reconciliation: Zoho Books simplifies the reconciliation process by offering both automated bank feeds and the option to manually upload statements. This flexibility ensures businesses can maintain accurate and up-to-date financial records with ease.

Use Cases

• Individuals needing mobile accounting: Zoho Books tops our list of the leading mobile accounting apps. Its app lets you enter bills, assign expenses to customers and projects, categorize expenses in the bank feed, record time worked, and view reports, making it ideal for QuickBooks users seeking a more capable mobile app.
• Zoho users: Staying within the Zoho environment is ideal for seamless and fast integration. If your business is already using other Zoho products, I highly recommend choosing Zoho Books over QuickBooks Online.
• Freelancers seeking project accounting software: With Zoho Books’ Free plan, businesses with less than $50,000 in annual revenues can enjoy the free plan, which includes useful features for freelancers like creating and sending invoices, tracking time and project expenses to include on invoices, and the ability to manage all your clients in one place.
• Growing businesses: Zoho Books has six pricing tiers that can scale up to 15 users. If you need more, you can add additional seats at $3 per user per month. Zoho Books wins over QuickBooks Online in scalability.

In my evaluation, Zoho Books stood out for its excellent mobile app, extensive integrations, and strong selection of available reports. It also edges out QuickBooks Online in pricing, offering more plans and better scalability.

While Zoho Books includes a 14-day free trial, it doesn’t provide discounts for new users. QuickBooks Online, on the other hand, offers either a 30-day free trial or 50% off for the first three months, making it a more attractive option for newcomers. Additionally, Zoho Books scored lower in customer support because Free users are limited to email support, and you’ll need a paid plan for full support options. If you want phone, email, live chat, and chatbot support, QuickBooks Online is a better choice.

Zoho Books can also feel complex to navigate due to some features being tucked away within others, which led to a lower score for ease of use and setup. While there may be a learning curve with Zoho Books, QuickBooks Online tends to be more user-friendly overall.

I chose Wave as the best option for sole proprietors looking for free accounting software to handle basic tasks like categorizing expenses, sending invoices, and tracking unpaid bills—features that QuickBooks doesn’t provide for free. While Zoho Books does offer a free version, it comes with a $50,000 annual revenue limit, making Wave Starter the more appealing choice since it’s free with no revenue restrictions.

Standout Features

• Easily manage sales tax: Add sales tax directly to invoices, bills, and estimates for seamless tracking.
• Track invoices with customer profiles: Users can create profiles to monitor invoice status and streamline client management.
• Receipt scanning with OCR: Use optical character recognition to scan and organize receipts efficiently.
• Simplify bill management: Wave allows users to record and monitor unpaid bills with ease to stay on top of expenses.

Use Cases

• Businesses that don’t need complex accounting software: Wave is best for those with basic accounting needs, like income and expense tracking and invoicing. It doesn’t offer premium features like project accounting, time tracking, and inventory management.
• Entrepreneurs with multiple businesses: Wave’s software can be used for managing multiple companies because it allows you to add an unlimited number of businesses into one account. It also has impressive reporting capabilities for such low-priced software.
• Receipt scanning: The provider charges $8 per month or $72 annually for unlimited receipt scans via the mobile app for Free plan subscribers. Receipt scanning is included with the Pro plan.

Wave scored high for Value thanks to its completely free accounting and invoicing plan, unlike QuickBooks Online, which doesn’t offer a free version. Its straightforward interface makes it a great choice for businesses that don’t require complex accounting software, earning high marks for ease of use and general features.

That said, Wave falls short in accounts receivable (A/R) and accounts payable (A/P) functionality. It doesn’t support creating recurring transactions from a bill, managing recurring expenses, or issuing purchase orders—features readily available in QuickBooks Online. Additionally, it lacks tools like combining multiple checks into a single deposit, issuing credit memos, or adding tracked expenses to invoices, which limits its flexibility.

Wave also scored low in banking due to its limited reconciliation features and inability to print checks. While the Pro plan allows for direct bank connections, the free plan relies on manual CSV file uploads for banking transactions. Inventory and project management are also minimal, and the mobile app and integration options don’t measure up to QuickBooks Online, which includes advanced features like tracking by classes and locations.

Customer support is another area where Wave lags. The free plan only includes self-help resources and an automated chatbot, while email and live chat support are locked behind the paid plan.

FreshBooks makes it easy for service providers to track time spent on projects and seamlessly add that billable time to client invoices. Its built-in time tracker simplifies the invoicing process, making it an efficient tool for managing billable hours. The platform prioritizes ease of use, which is great for new business owners but might feel a bit limiting for experienced bookkeepers.

One example is how FreshBooks handles expenses. Instead of assigning expenses to specific checking or credit card accounts, the system automatically matches entered expenses to all live bank feeds to identify the account used. This approach is unique among bookkeeping software—including QuickBooks—and user-friendly for nonbookkeepers. However, professional bookkeepers may not like it as they can’t track available bank account balances until transactions clear the bank.

Standout Features

• Cheaper QuickBooks alternative: FreshBooks offers a cost-effective solution for small businesses, particularly for single users managing their finances on a limited budget. Its pricing structure makes it accessible for entrepreneurs who need essential accounting features without overspending.
• Customizable invoicing options: FreshBooks stands out with its robust invoice customization tools, allowing businesses to personalize their invoices with branding, payment terms, and additional details. This ensures that every invoice looks professional and meets specific business requirements.
• Simple and user-friendly design: The platform is designed with freelancers and business owners in mind, especially those without an accounting background. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to navigate and complete tasks, even for those new to managing business finances.
• Unlimited invoicing across all plans: Regardless of the plan you choose, FreshBooks allows you to send an unlimited number of invoices. This feature provides flexibility and ensures businesses can handle growing invoicing needs without worrying about additional costs.

Use Cases

• Freelancers and do-it-yourself (DIY) business owners: If you want to DIY bookkeeping to save money, FreshBooks is easy to use even if you don’t have an accounting background. By familiarizing yourself with its modules, you can easily learn how to navigate around FreshBooks.
• Service-based businesses: Since FreshBooks doesn’t have inventory features, its project accounting features suit service-based businesses, especially those that bill by the hour. With FreshBooks’ built-in time tracker, you can easily track time, bill clients, and monitor project income and expenses.

FreshBooks scored highly for its mobile app, which mirrors most desktop functions except assigning expenses to projects. It earned a perfect score in integrations, thanks to compatibility with over 70 software programs.

Its pricing, however, scored poorly due to plans being limited to one user and additional seats costing $11 per month. Banking also brought its score down, as reconciling bank statements requires connecting directly to a bank account—something QuickBooks handles more flexibly. Despite this, FreshBooks excelled in project accounting by offering tools to compare estimated and actual costs, a feature missing in QuickBooks.

In A/R and A/P, it performed well but scored low in inventory management due to the lack of features for tracking quantities, inventory value, or cost of goods sold. QuickBooks outpaces FreshBooks here, with advanced tools like class and location tracking and fixed asset management.

Ease of setup and customer service further lowered its scores. While it offers strong telephone support, the lack of live chat negatively affected its customer service rating. It did score well in tax and reporting, with solid tools for tracking sales tax, though manual setup for each jurisdiction is required.

Xero is one of QuickBooks Online’s strongest competitors globally and is generally a cheaper alternative to QuickBooks. QuickBooks Online’s highest plan costs $235 per month for up to 25 users, while Xero’s top plan is only $78 per month and allows unlimited users. For businesses needing more user access without the steep cost of QuickBooks Online Advanced, Xero is the more affordable and scalable choice.

Additionally, Xero includes a built-in fixed asset manager that automatically calculates and tracks depreciation for individual assets. This feature, unavailable in QuickBooks Online without upgrading to the costly Advanced plan, gives Xero an edge for businesses needing robust asset management tools without paying a premium.

Standout Features

• Outstanding project accounting and fixed asset tracking: Xero’s project accounting tools allow businesses to track expenses, revenues, and project profitability in real time. Its built-in fixed asset manager automates depreciation calculations, ensuring accurate asset tracking without manual effort.
• Scalable plans for growing businesses: Xero offers flexible pricing plans that cater to businesses of all sizes, allowing for smooth transitions as your company grows. With unlimited user access included at no extra cost, Xero ensures your accounting system can scale alongside your operations.
• Features inventory and COGS tracking: Xero simplifies inventory management by providing tools to monitor stock levels, inventory values, and cost of goods sold (COGS). It supports real-time updates to help businesses maintain accurate records and make informed decisions.

Use Cases

• Large accounting teams: With Xero, you don’t have to worry about user limits. You can add all members of the accounting team within Xero.
• Fixed asset management: Xero is the only software on this list with a dedicated fixed asset manager that can help manage fixed asset information and depreciation schedules. I recommend getting Xero if you need to manage multiple fixed assets.
• Project accounting: Xero has one of the best project accounting features of the providers in this guide. In our evaluation, it aced this category because it can track and compare costs, assign income and expense to projects, and create project estimates.

Xero shines in general accounting features, earning a perfect score in my evaluation. It performed strongly in A/R, A/P, banking, inventory management, and reporting, offering tools like inventory tracking, automatic COGS calculation, and the ability to add inventory to invoices. With over 100 apps in its App Store, Xero also received top marks for integrations.

When compared to QuickBooks Online, Xero is more affordable and flexible, with no user limits and advanced project accounting features like comparing actual vs. budgeted costs—something QuickBooks doesn’t provide. Its built-in fixed asset manager further sets it apart by managing asset sales and depreciation without requiring an expensive upgrade.

That said, Xero has weaknesses in customer service, as support is limited to a chatbot, email, and self-help resources. Its advisor network is smaller than QuickBooks’, and the setup process can be difficult for users without accounting knowledge. Additionally, the mobile app is limited to sending invoices and categorizing expenses, lacking functionality for receiving payments or generating reports. For a more robust mobile app and customer support, Zoho Books might be a better alternative.

Manually consolidating multiple companies can be a hassle, but I’ve found that Sage 50 makes it incredibly easy. With just a few clicks, parent companies can merge financial statements without the usual headaches. It also offers advanced budgeting tools that are great for setting and tracking financial goals, and it handles foreign currency transactions seamlessly with ASC 830/FAS 52 compliance. With the demise of QuickBooks Desktop for new users, Sage 50 is my top choice for a desktop accounting software.

Standout Features

• Industry-specific features: Sage 50 includes customized tools designed for the construction, manufacturing, and distribution industries. These features address unique challenges, such as job costing for construction, production tracking for manufacturing, and order management for distribution, ensuring that businesses in these sectors have the support they need to operate efficiently.
• Audit trails: Sage 50’s audit trail feature provides a clear and secure record of all transactions, helping businesses stay compliant with regulatory requirements. This tool is invaluable for monitoring changes, detecting errors, and ensuring accountability within financial operations.
• FIFO and LIFO options: With the flexibility to choose between first-in, first-out (FIFO) and last-in, first-out (LIFO) inventory methods, Sage 50 accommodates diverse accounting needs. This is particularly beneficial for businesses managing inventory costs in fluctuating markets or those adhering to specific reporting standards.
• Multicompany accounting: Sage 50 simplifies managing finances across multiple entities by offering multicompany accounting capabilities, including consolidations. Parent companies can merge financial data from subsidiaries quickly and accurately, streamlining reporting and ensuring a comprehensive view of financial performance.

Use Cases

• Multicompany accounting: If your organization owns several businesses or companies, Sage 50 is a good choice for creating consolidated financial statements. This feature is something that QuickBooks Online can’t do.
• Businesses looking for special accounting features: Aside from consolidation, Sage 50 has job costing features that can help with accounting for costs on a per-job level.
• Businesses using LIFO inventory: Sage 50 can value inventory using LIFO, making it ideal for businesses who elected LIFO inventory on their tax returns.

In my evaluation, Sage 50 performed exceptionally well in A/P and A/R features, as well as project accounting and reporting, earning nearly perfect scores for its ability to assign project costs and set estimates. It also excelled in integrations, with compatibility across 115 third-party applications, though it falls short of QuickBooks Online, which offers over 750 integrations.

Sage 50 scored relatively high in inventory management and customer service, thanks to its 24/7 phone and online chat support. However, its pricing received one of the lowest scores in this guide, as it’s notably more expensive than competitors, particularly for businesses with multiple users.

The software also struggled in the mobile app category, as its app is limited to capturing receipts and doesn’t support sending invoices or entering bill payments. This contrasts with QuickBooks Online, which earned above-average marks for its mobile app. Additionally, Sage 50’s steep learning curve and challenging setup process brought down its ease-of-use score, where QuickBooks Online excelled with near-perfect ratings.

I included QuickBooks Solopreneur on this list because it’s an excellent option for self-employed individuals looking to track income and expenses for reporting on Schedule C of their tax returns. Although it’s a QuickBooks product, it’s entirely separate from QuickBooks Online and comes at a much lower cost. One standout feature is its ability to separate business and personal expenses, making it ideal for those who combine their business and personal expenses in a single bank account.

Standout Features

• Categorize income and expenses with ease: Users can categorize income and expenses within QuickBooks Solopreneur, which is the primary feature needed for Schedule C filers.
• IRS-aligned classification: Automatically classifies income and expenses into categories that match IRS Schedule C requirements, simplifying tax preparation.
• Mileage deduction tracking: Automatically calculates mileage deductions for all work-related trips, ensuring you maximize tax savings without extra effort.

Use Cases

• Freelancers who use the same bank account for personal and business use: QuickBooks Solopreneur lets you categorize personal and business transactions. This feature can help you keep track of items that should or should not be included in tax returns.
• Individuals who prefer easy-to-use software: Since QuickBooks Solopreneur is not a full accounting software, it’s easier to use than QuickBooks Online. It’s perfect for freelancers who don’t have to track A/R and A/P.

QuickBooks Solopreneur wasn’t fully rated in this evaluation due to its inability to track assets and liabilities. It scored 2.4 out of 5 in banking, as it provides only basic features like account connectivity and viewing outstanding transactions, making its banking capabilities limited in comparison to more robust platforms. On the positive side, its pricing is very affordable, and it includes helpful tools like invoice generation and tracking, as well as automatic mileage tracking.

This product recently replaced QuickBooks Self-Employed. While it comes with a slightly higher price tag, it offers a significantly improved invoicing feature—a key benefit for sole proprietors. That said, it lost some functionality, such as the ability to transfer income and expenses to TurboTax, a feature I hope Intuit will reinstate before the next tax season as the platform matures.

Compared to Solopreneur, QuickBooks Online offers a broader range of features, including class and location tracking, inventory management, and COGS calculations. It also allows users to record fixed assets and assign labor and inventory to projects. For those seeking comparable functionality, QuickBooks Desktop provides a similar suite of tools and capabilities.

I chose Invoicera as the best standalone invoicing software alternative to QuickBooks because it allows businesses to customize features to fit their specific needs. It provides a robust set of tools, including the ability to create tailored invoices, automate recurring billing, manage expenses, and handle transactions in multiple currencies.

Invoicera also offers customizable invoice templates, integrates with multiple payment gateways, and supports various payment methods, making it a versatile option for businesses across different industries and sizes. However, it lacks live bank feeds and essential bookkeeping features like bill payment and account reconciliation—areas where QuickBooks has a clear advantage.

In my evaluation, Invoicera excelled in its invoicing features and customization capabilities. It’s particularly suited for businesses with complex billing needs, offering the flexibility to set up tailored invoice approval workflows. This allows team members to review, authorize, and approve invoices efficiently before sending them out for payment. Its mobile app also performed exceptionally well, providing solid functionality on the go.

That said, there are areas where it could improve. Introducing a free plan or offering discounts for new users, like Zoho Invoice and Square Invoices, would make its pricing strategy more competitive. Additionally, ease of use could be better, especially since its bookkeeping capabilities are limited unless integrated with tools like QuickBooks Online.

I chose Zoho Invoice as the best free standalone invoicing software because it provides an impressive range of features essential for businesses, even without a price tag. Users can create and send professional invoices, and it supports multiple currencies and tax regulations, making it versatile for different markets.

Its clean, intuitive interface and dashboard offer a clear overview of key financial details, helping businesses stay organized. While it doesn’t include built-in accounting features, it integrates seamlessly with Zoho Books for bookkeeping. Additionally, the client portal allows you to share invoices, estimates, and statements directly with clients, enhancing communication and transparency.

Zoho Invoice earned high ratings for its invoicing features, especially its customization options, despite being a free tool. However, it does have usability limitations, as accessing accounting features requires integration with Zoho Books. In contrast, QuickBooks offers built-in accounting capabilities without such dependencies, avoiding these usability challenges.

Customer support is another area where Zoho Invoice fell short, as it doesn’t provide options for direct phone or live chat support. For businesses that prioritize strong customer service, FreshBooks is a better alternative, offering direct communication with live agents via phone.

I found Square Invoices to be an excellent choice for smaller businesses and individuals, thanks to its free and user-friendly platform. While it may not be the most feature-packed invoicing solution, it stands out with tools like customer profiles for storing payment information and automation for sending reminders and converting estimates into invoices.

I chose it as the best option for businesses with infrequent transactions because of its transparent and predictable rates, even though they aren’t the lowest. Square Invoices also supports flexible payment options, including buy now, pay later (BNPL) and ACH payments, making it convenient for customers. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with other Square products, such as Square POS and Square Payments, to provide a more comprehensive ecosystem for business operations.

Square Invoices excels in invoice customization, offering various options to tailor invoices to your needs. You can choose from multiple templates, adjust colors, edit fields, and upload your company logo to create a professional look. It also performed exceptionally well in our rubric for invoicing features, pricing, and its mobile app, although it fell short in customer service due to the absence of email support.

Ease of use was a drawback, as the platform isn’t very intuitive and requires integration with accounting software for broader functionality. Since it’s strictly an invoicing tool, it lacks key accounting features like expense tracking and bank reconciliation. For businesses needing invoicing and bookkeeping combined, a more comprehensive solution like Zoho Books might be a better fit.

Square Invoices also lacks access to a network of experts, which is a significant advantage for QuickBooks Online users through their ProAdvisor program. However, Square Invoices offers unique flexibility with its buy now, pay later (BNPL) option, a feature QuickBooks Online does not provide.